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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Charles Weller" <infooffice0179@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dr.charlesweller@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2019 15:35:53 -0700
Subject: Next Of Kin
I am contacting you based on a financial opportunity I discovered here in
our bank. It’s about an abandoned sum of 10.7 million USD in our safe
deposit vault, that belongs to one of our foreign customers, who died along
with his entire family on 11th March 2004 in train bombing in Madrid.
The banking policy can only allow the release of such funds to a benefactor
through an application as next of kin to the deceased. Since no one has
come up since over ten years. I am almost 100% sure that no one is aware of
the existence of these funds.In conclusion, it’s my concern to demand your
ultimate honesty, co-operation and confidentiality.I GUARANTEE that this
process would be executed under a legitimate arrangement that would legally
protect you from any breach of law. i got your email from Internet.
Dr. Charles Weller.
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Anti-fraud resources:
